Role of Sierra Leone Missions around the World

The President of Sierra Leone exercises power under the Constitution to appoint Ambassadors to represent us in foreign countries. The Ambassador represents Sierra Leone’s interests in all aspects of international relations  politics, economics, social, and cultural. He/she also represents the interest of its citizens living in these foreign countries. The popular image of an Ambassador is one clad in beautiful traditional clothing, presenting credentials to the Head of state in their designated country. The Ambassador’s role is seen as ceremonial. Most people are not aware of the instrumental role played by these Ambassadors as agents of change. This information gap deprives the Ambassador of advice and input from citizens that may be useful in making decisions on how best to achieve the vision of a ‘Better Sierra Leone’ under the leadership of President Ernest Bai Koroma.
But one thing that beats my imagination is the caliber of High Commissioners and Ambassadors he has been appointing in the last three years. Almost all of them have done something negative that has some bad repercussion to our country; some have been granted persona non grata, others recalled, others presented their credentials with girlfriend by their side, whilst others have been bullying their staff. All these do not augur well for the good image of our country but what we can say, they were appointed because of political affiliation and not on merit.
My objective in this short article is to share some of the initiatives being pursued to effect positive change in Sierra Leone. My hope is that readers will offer ideas and suggestions on ways in which an Ambassador can play an instrumental role and serve as an agent of change. Infact, the Ambassadors and High Commissioners must be an aggressive advocate of the policies of Sierra Leone by pointing out the achievements and positive outcomes of the Government’s economic policies towards the achievement of the ‘Agenda for Change’ vision in Sierra Leone.
Today, there is aggressive competition in the global diplomacy market as countries seek international respectability and recognition and to build investor confidence. Advances in Information technology have contributed to expanded South-South interaction demanding that today’s Ambassadors shed the ceremonial image and become proactive. When Alie Bangura was High Commissioner to Ghana, He was very instrumental in bringing investors, administrators as well as selling Sierra Leone in Ghana. Today the NASSIT we are proud of, the Regimanuel Gray housing company were all the brainchild of him. Ports Authority became viable when he advised the former dispensation to allow a Ghanaian to head it.
I have intentionally cast the discussion within the broader context of “South-South” partnership-building to reinforce the proposition that the role of today’s Ambassador goes beyond pomp and ceremony since the role of an Ambassador as an agent of change is driven by the same forces that influence ‘South-South’ cooperation.
South-South Co-operation refers to co-operation between one developing country and another in contrast to North-South Co-operation that refers to co-operation between a developed country and a developing country. Many countries in Southern Africa have been working assiduously with the Asian Tigers by opening up missions in these countries like Singapore, Malaysia, India, Thailand and Indonesia.
The way at which the East and Southern African countries have benefited from this cooperation is so heartbreaking for us in Sierra Leone. What these countries have achieved from countries like China, India, and Malaysia is unprecedented. The reason is we do not have the right Ambassadors in these countries or we don’t even have one that will aggressively channel our case for better investment or good government interventions.
South-South cooperation started in 1978 when United Nations established it. The overall goal of the unit is to promote economic, social, and political relationships between developing countries, and also promote relations between developed and developing countries.
In my time in China, I saw how Ambassadors of Mozambique, Angola and Botswana where pushing for the Chinese CPC members to visit their countries and see how they can invest big time. At regular intervals, ministers and presidents from these countries where always in China pushing for intensive investment, but for Sierra Leone, the Ambassador was caught pants down and has been withdrawn, our president has only paid two visits in his three years in office, and how can we attract better South-South cooperation? The quantum of investment that we can receive from this cooperation we will never get from the North-South. Developed countries will give us financial aid with conditions attached, but developing countries will want to work with us step by step until we achieve success.
In South East Asia, I did observed initiatives by countries in transition to a knowledge economy; I am convinced of the need to strengthen science and engineering research collaboration between developing countries as a strategic element in South-South partnership building.
Athar Osama, an expert on ‘South-South’ partnerships, discusses the many benefits of ‘South-South partnerships in the June 23, 2010 issue of Science and Development Network, ‘SciDevNet.’ He noted the immense growth in these partnerships, for example, he writes, “between 1988 and 2005 articles written by American scientists with at least one international co-author increased from 9 to 26 per cent of all peer-reviewed papers”. Unfortunately, the expansion in collaboration has not been necessarily ‘intentional,’ or purposive, that is, it has not been the result of a carefully laid out strategy that builds on the resources and capabilities within a developing country. For instance, while there may be several memoranda of Agreement between our institutions and other foreign institutions, there is no information on the number and details of such collaboration. But an even more challenging task is to build that critical link between academia, the political apparatus, and private industry in a seamless partnership to push the ‘Agenda for Change’ vision.
The efforts of our ambassadors should be intended to create an enabling environment for expanded research collaboration between Sierra Leone institutions and counterpart institutions in South-East Asia. India, China, Japan, Indonesia and China have been giving Sierra Leoneans scholarships to pursue their studies, but what is our government doing to empower them on their return? Do we use these students to help the country achieve more from these countries? No! after their return, the government forgets about them, they don’t want to know how they can help develop such relationship.
We need to make an effort in improving information resources about Sierra Leone. The ambassador should be collecting and cataloguing publications, videos, and information resources about Sierra Leone culture, economy, politics, and society. Even though we have small budget, we should request, at no charge, publications from Development Partners, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Sierra Leone, and research institutions around the world. We should be interested in publications about growth, investment, opportunities in tourism, agriculture, agribusiness, energy, etc., and success stories  testimonials of foreign and domestic investors. These Ambassadors should try and acquire copies of the major business laws, register of professional bodies, telephone directories, tourist guides, videos and maps, and also encourage all who have an interest in building this library to contact the embassy like the one in China.
Another initiative of our ambassadors is to bridge the research gap between science/engineering and public policy. We are focusing particularly on how to nurture collaboration between the universities in the Asian Tigers and those in Sierra Leone to engage in research activities in support of the emerging Iron Ore, energy, and biomedical science sectors in Sierra Leone.
Most Universities in China are collaborating with their counterparts in East and Southern Africa. Even when I was there some of my lecturers were interested to know more about Sierra Leone and how they can work with our own universities in terms of exchange programmes, technical assistance and giving out more scholarships, but these can be done if our Ambassador in the country is aggressive in promoting his country in these aspects. China has money, they have the capacity to improve our universities especially now that it has proven that we have the largest Iron Ore deposit in Africa because they need more of it and they are ready to invest and help us big time.
I am optimistic that if this collaboration can be establish, our iron ore discovery will lead to an increase in research in science and engineering. There will therefore be solid institutional support for the proposed partnership.
Sierra Leone and China share a long history of collaboration and China has made a strong commitment to South-South collaboration with the UN-backed international centre for South-South cooperation in many areas. There are several public and private institutions that both countries can work with to put the proposed partnership on a sustainable basis.
I call on Sierra Leone to support the strengthening of research ties between our universities in Sierra Leone and those in other developing countries.
This is not to deny the many benefits from partnerships between developed and developing countries.
I am in total agreement with what Athar Osama wrote about South-South partnerships, “Ultimately, however, the true success of South-South research collaboration initiatives can only be measured by their ability to achieve sustainability beyond an initial period of enthusiasm and startup funding, deliver high quality and high-impact research, and solve challenging scientific problems of the South.” Today’s Ambassadors must help define the framework to support sustainable South-South partnerships to achieve the ‘Agenda for Change’ vision.
By Austin Thomas